


I've Seen The Horror, I've Seen The Wonders (Happening Just In Front Of My Eyes)

by orphan_account



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Adventure & Romance, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon-Typical Violence, Drama, Eventual Romance, F/M, Inhumans (Marvel), Leo Fitz & Jemma Simmons Friendship, POV Jemma Simmons, POV Leo Fitz, Secrets
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-25
Updated: 2017-09-18
Packaged: 2018-11-04 14:54:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 21,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10993227
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: 20 years after her father is killed, Jemma finds herself still searching for answers.3 years after a mission gone wrong, Fitz still finds himself coming to terms with what has happened.When these two come together, they find out they may have to work together to stop a greater threat, one that could change the world forever.And along the way, they may find themselves falling for one another.*ON INDEFINITE HIATUS*





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Guess who is back with their summer/ hiatus fic? This will probably be a long one, at least 25 chapters but I have most planned out anyway and aim to update at least once a week? Thanks for checking out and hope you enjoy. Title from Jillian (I'd Give My Heart) by Within Temptation.

She was lying on the carpet, a stack of paper in front of her, a pile of crayons beside her and an intense look of concentration on her face. He couldn’t help the smile that crossed his face as he watched her there, drawing, having fun and enjoying herself like any eight-year-old should be.

He tried to push the thoughts out of his mind, ignore the twisting anxiety in his stomach. But he couldn’t help it. He was her father after all. It was his job to worry about her. Especially when school was starting again tomorrow. Something that she hated.

But he hoped this new school, the one she was starting tomorrow, would be different. Would be better than what had come before. The teasing. The bullying.

This was her fifth school in the past four years. He hated that. Hated that she couldn’t find somewhere, couldn’t settle anywhere.

The other kids, they saw her as different, saw her as weird, and the teachers couldn’t cope with her either. They called her disruptive in lessons, and inattentive, saying she refused to do her work. He had tried to talk to her about it, after the first time he had been called into school, and she had complained that the work was too easy, and it was boring, wasn’t challenging enough.

He had always known she was smarter than others her age, and that wasn’t just him saying it because he was her father. He was saying it because it was the truth.

She had spoken months before even doctors said it tended to happen, and was walking before he even thought it was possible. And countless nights were spent with Jemma sitting beside him, helping him fill in the _New York Times_ crossword, answering questions he didn’t even know.

After that first talk with her principal, he had taken her out for ice cream, and had asked her if she wanted some workbooks aimed at those older than her, to challenge her. She had nodded, dripping chocolate ice cream everywhere.

And she had flown through them, and the ones after that. And the ones after that. At this point, he thought, she would be able to do University level work within the next two years.

But all of that, it didn’t matter. Not if she was unhappy in school, something she still had to attend as he couldn’t home-school her, not yet anyway. But at school, she had no friends and suffered socially and he hated that. He wanted the best for his daughter and feared that he wasn’t doing that for her.

The chiming off the clock announcing eight distracted him from his thoughts.

And it also seemed to distract Jemma from what she was doing, from what she was drawing. She let out a sigh and sat up, looking at her father. “Do I have to?”

He nodded. “Sorry,” he replied, bending down and lifting her. “Bed time. Big day tomorrow.”

She dropped her gaze. “’Suppose.”

“Hey.” He lifted her chin, meeting her eyes. “Tomorrow is going to be okay. This school, they know about you. They’re letting you do some of the harder work, it’s not going to be like last time, and afterwards, ice cream? Yeah?”

She nodded her agreement. He could always win her over with ice cream. “Can I still have a bed time story?”

“Of course you can.”

***

It was half an hour later, and she had brushed her teeth, and was curled up in bed. Her father had read her a chapter from her book before bed and was just about to leave when she called to him. “We’ll be okay, won’t we?”

He smiled at her but there was something there, something that she didn’t quite understand. Was he worried about her? He never said he was but she could tell that he was. Could tell that he always worried.

And she hated that. Hated that she made him feel that way.

But still, he was smiling at her. “Yeah, we’ll be okay.”

As he made his way across the room, she couldn’t help but think he was right. They had always been fine, just the two of them, ever since her mum walked out on them, when she was six months old.

She hadn’t ever heard from her mum, and she hadn’t tried to contact her dad either but it didn’t matter.

They had each other.

They would always have each other.

Sitting on the edge of the bed, he reached up and removed something from around his neck. All she could do was stare in shock. His necklace. The one he always wore. The one that had been passed down his family for generations and was supposed to protect the wearer.

It was an old wooden charm of intricate knots that hung on thread. He smiled at her, still staring in shock as he placed it over her head.

“I can’t,” she whispered shaking her head. “What about you?”

He shrugged. “I’ll be fine and anyway, you need it more than me. Good luck for tomorrow, yeah?”

She nodded slowly, still scared to take the necklace, to take the protection it provided from her father.

“I love you,” he told her again, placing a kiss on her forehead.

She nodded in agreement. “I love you too.”

He stood up, adjusting her blankets once again and made his way across the room, and smiled at her before closing the door.

***

Jemma Anne Simmons couldn’t sleep that night. It never came easy when she had school the next day, especially if she were starting a new one.

Even the soft murmur of the TV in the other room never helped.

She tossed and turned and was just about to get out of bed to talk to her dad when she heard it. The shouting.

She froze in place, and covered her ears with her hands. She never liked it when her dad shouted. But… who was he shouting at. She couldn’t hear the words, just the angry tones of their voices and then…

A bang.

Then nothing.

She called out to him.

He didn’t come.

Maybe he hadn’t heard her.

She called again and again and again.

Tears began to stream down her face and her voice was heavy with fear, and shaking slightly.

She curled up on the bed, knees drawn up to her chest. 

She wanted this to go away.

Whatever it was.

Eventually, footsteps echoed down the hall and she felt a wave of relief begin to wash over her…

But when the door opened, it wasn’t her dad, instead it was a policewoman.

She frowned, wondering what they were doing at the house. Was everything okay?

“Jemma?” she asked.

Jemma nodded, knowing that it was okay to answer, that the police only wanted to help. And that her dad would be there in a moment anyway.

“I’m going to need you to come with me, that okay?”

Jemma shook her head. “I want my daddy.”

A look flashed across the woman’s face and she walked into the room, sitting on the bed. Jemma sat up, and reached for her necklace, fidgeting with it. “Is he okay?”

The policewomen took on of Jemma’s hands in her own. “You’re going to be okay. I promise you, you’re going to be okay.”


	2. Isn't Something Missing?

_20 Years Later_

Jemma pushed back the curtain, looking out the window. The sky was an inky black, dotted here and there with tiny specks of light, some of the only stars that could still be seen.

She sighed, and knew that it was now or never. She had to leave if she wanted to pass on the supplies, to help those who were still stranded in the area. And she had to see _her_ before they left. She had promised _her_ that she would see them before they left, before they said goodbye.

And she couldn’t break a promise. Especially not when it was a pinky promise.

She shook her head, and dropped her hand, allowing the curtain to fall back across the window and made her way across the room, kneeling on the floor in front of the coffee table.

She pulled the backpack closer to her, checking the supplies that she had managed to scavenge; first aid kit: check. Food and water: check. Wire cutters: check. Blankets: check. The tickets; check.

She leaned back on her heels. Everything was there. All she had to do now was transport it across town, to the safe house and hand it over to those who needed it. Easy enough… as long as she never got caught.

But she had done it before, she had had some close encounters but she had done it before.

Taking a breath to calm herself, she rubbed at her face with her hands and reached for the remote, turning on the television.

It was low, the voice on screen unable to be heard but seeing the headline scrolling across the screen was something that said it all.

_10 new Inhumans caught by Hydra_

Her stomach twisted. Another ten she wasn’t able to help. She didn’t care if state boundaries separated them, she wasn’t able to help them. And now, now they were in Hydra’s grasp, facing who knows what horrors.

She wanted to turn it up, to hear what Sunil Bakshi had to say, but she couldn’t risk it. It was late, the clock on the wall showing it was just after one in the morning and she didn’t want to draw any more attention to herself. Her neighbours were suspicious enough already of her: the young Brit who didn’t seem to have any form of formal employment, who went out at all hours of the night and sometimes vanished for days only to come back with blood marring her face.

She couldn’t risk any more attention being drawn to her. Of her neighbours finding out just who she was.

Finding out just _what_ she was.

Focusing her attention back to the screen, one of Hydra’s top agents was talking, doing a report. She didn’t want to know any more about it so she turned the screen off, while trying not to vomit and threw the remote onto the sofa, the object bouncing twice before settling on the threadbare fabric.

She rose, and swung the backpack over her shoulder, then crossed her apartment, and flicked off the lights, then she took once last glance before closing the door and locking it behind her.

***

As she hurried through the darkened streets, her figure was hunched and she kept herself to herself. There were few people on the streets, and not one of them gave her more than a glance. The backstreets of town, the areas were Hydra’s control wasn’t secure, where areas were someone could walk with a hood up and a backpack and no one would bat an eyelash. These areas where areas where those that Hydra hunted tended to hide but it still wasn’t safe.

Nowhere was safe.

If someone had to, they would let a neighbour get caught, lead Hydra to their whereabouts if it meant that they themselves remained safe.

The areas were only a community in the name and the name alone. There was nothing friendly, inviting and warm about it.

Friendships, they didn’t matter here. Survival was the only thing that mattered and people would do anything to survive.

Especially in the world that they lived in now.

Quickening her pace, Jemma checked her watch, making sure that she was going to be there on time. She couldn’t be late. Not again. But she was, as long as she didn’t get caught up in anything, she was going to be on time.

As she turned down one street she saw the one thing that she didn’t want to see.

An attack.

It wasn’t the first one that she had seen, and she knew it wouldn’t be the last, but it was still hard to see.

It was a man, who looked about her age, but the attackers, they ranged from what seemed to be young teens to people older than her.

And she knew what he was.

_Inhuman._

The man was begging, pleading them to stop. He was in pain and blood coated his face. Once he saw Jemma, a figure walking past that wasn’t taking part in the violence, he turned his attention to her, calling out to her, begging her to save him.

But Jemma couldn’t. It was too much of a risk. And she had somewhere to go.

“Please!” he called out to her, one last time. His voice bled pain but Jemma simply ignored him, ducking her head and quickening her pace.

There was one last cry of please, then one of pain and Jemma was out of earshot of him, fighting back tears.

***

She made it to the fence, with still half an hour to spare. She allowed herself to breathe a sigh of relief. All she had to do now was cut a hole into the chain links and make her way across the field to where they would be waiting for her and pass them the backpack, holding up her end of the bargain. And if they held up their end, well she would be slightly richer tonight and be able to afford something other than beans and toast for dinner tomorrow.

She set the bag down and rummaged through it once again, pulling out the wire cutters. What she was about to do was risky, she knew that Hydra would soon discover that their precious fence had been cut and if anyone saw her doing it (not that they could see her, in a dark jacket with the hood pulled up, but still… it wasn’t a risk that she wanted to take.), it wouldn’t be good news for her.

Reaching forward, she grabbed at the fence and cut into the first wire, wincing when the snip, quiet as it maybe, reverberated around the darkness. She cast a quick glance over her shoulder but she was alone, there was no one there.

So she continued cutting away at the fence, and once she had cut a hole that was large enough to fit through. She grabbed the bag, and pulled it after her as she did so, the ends of the metal scratched at her face, leaving tiny trails of red on her cheek.

But she was through and smiled, she was so close to succeeding. She had almost made it. It was just a ten-minute walk across a field and then her task would be done.

It was when she was kneeling on the ground, the grass damp and soaking her jeans that she heard it. The sound of an aircraft up above her. She looked up but saw nothing. No plane, no helicopter, no spotlight.

Maybe she missed it. Maybe it had flown in a different direction and she was simply just hearing it.

Or the aircraft was cloaked. She had heard rumours underground that Hydra was developing cloaking technology but she had hoped it was only that, rumour. And if it wasn’t… that it was years off.

But it wasn’t. It was real and it was working and there was a high chance that they had seen her and now, now it wasn’t just her at risk.

Slinging the bag back over her shoulder, she took over running, stumbling on the uneven ground but she didn’t care. Not anymore.

After a number of minutes, her breathing was laboured. She wasn’t being careful with her breathing and her lungs burned as she continued to run.

After just over five minutes, she made it to the abandoned shed she was to meet them at. It was larger than that of a conventional garden shed, used for tending the open areas around it but it had been emptied of all gardening equipment and the corrugated roof was caving in. She stood outside it, steadying her breathing and knocked three times.

“Jemma?” the voice inside asked.

“Yeah,” she panted out and the door opened slightly and she was pulled in.

The shed itself wasn’t that much darker than outside, with only a large LED camping light in the far corner casting an orange glow around the room.

“You got it?” the voice, the man, asked again. No, not really a man. He was twenty, still just a kid really. Thrown into a world that made him grow up quicker than anyone should have.

Jemma nodded, sliding off the backpack and passing it to him.

Nick accepted it, but still cast a weary glare at her and began searching through it.

“I assure you, it’s all there,” Jemma said but her tone was agitated. Something was off, and at this moment, she couldn’t put her finger on it.

Eventually, Nick nodded and passed the bag back to someone who accepted it. He then reached to the side table and passed her the money. “$1500.”

Jemma accepted it with thanks, flicking through the notes quickly.

“It’s all there,” Nick joked.

“I trust you.” She said, folding the notes and placing it in her jacket pocket. “Are you leaving tonight?”

Nick nodded. “Once Eliza and John return.”

“Eliza?” Jemma asked, trying to keep the panic out of her voice. There was nothing wrong. Not yet, there was nothing to worry about. “She’s not here?” Jemma glanced around the room and saw that Nick was right. Eliza and John weren’t here. “Where is she?”

Nick sighed and Jemma could see the pain in his eyes. “She wanted to go to the play park before we left. We’ve not heard from them…”

“How long?” Jemma demanded. “How long?”

Nick shrugged. “About two hours ago.”

Jemma ran her hands through her hair and spun, looking around the room and trying to work out what to do next. Her breathing was becoming more rapid and she knew, she knew she had to calm herself down, to think through this logically. “We need to find her. Hydra, they’re out there, that plane that flew overhead… Hydra.”

“You saw it?” Nick asked, and fear and panic started to spread, passing from person to person in the room, an infectious wave. “They’re here?”

“I never saw it, maybe I missed. Maybe it was nothing. But you know the rumours about Hydra.”

“The cloaking technology?”

Jemma nodded. “I need to find her. She could be in danger.” She blinked a number of times, trying to hold back the tears but it didn’t work. The first tear escaped, clinging to her lashes for a moment before making a path down her face. “I’m going to find her.”

She turned to leave but someone grabbed her arm. Nick. His face was pale and he was shaking his head. “You can’t just go out there. You’re unarmed.”

Jemma pulled her arm out of his grip and reached into her pocket before handing him the money back. “Take it,” she demanded once he refused. “Take it!”

Nick shook his head and Jemma just set it down on the table again. “I can’t risk being caught with $1500 on me. They’re going to figure out I’m smuggling supplies. I’m not putting you at risk.” She turned to look at one of the other Inhumans in the room, a girl of fifteen, holding out a blade but Jemma just shook her head. “I’m not taking it. You know my policy.” She looked around the room, at these kids who had been thrown into a war zone, who were being hunted because they were different. “I’ll get her back. I promise.”

And with that, she left the shed, intending to make good on her promise.

***

She made her away back across the uneven ground, at a gentler jog as she was unable to run, her lungs hurting too much and oxygen burning her airway but it wasn’t fast enough. She had to find Eliza. She had to.

The girl was only seven. She didn’t deserve this. She deserved so much better.

And what the tickets in the backpack offered was just that. A chance a way from here, somewhere where people like her weren’t hunted.

Somewhere where she could be a child.

The play park wasn’t far and she reached it in moments. But she never entered. Instead, she stood at the gate, a rusted metal that reached just below her waist, staring in at the area that was supposed to symbolise innocence and childhood.

It was empty, deserted. A gentle breeze blew one of the swings back and forth, the old chains creaking. Composing herself, Jemma lifted one leg, and then swung it over the locked gate before lifting the other and doing the same.

When her shoes touched the soft asphalt, and rose again, there was something sticky there. She knelt down, touching the substance and lifting it. In the faint twinkle of the stars, she could see it for what it was.

Blood.

She fell back, suppressing a scream.

But that wasn’t the worst thing she saw.

No, the worst thing was _what was causing the puddle of blood_.

It was John.

Shot. Killed. A bullet to the head.

Jemma felt physically ill and it took all her strength not to vomit there and then.

He was killed because of who he was.

She closed her eyes and titled her head back, trying to compose herself. John was only twenty-five, the eldest Inhuman in the group she had found, in the group she had sworn to bring to safety. She had failed him, she had failed them.

No. Not all of them. Not yet. Eliza was still out here, alive. And she was going to get her and bring her to safety.

“Eliza!” Jemma called out, her voice a low but gentle hiss, so as not to alert any Hydra solders that might still be waiting in the area. Her eyes darted across the playground and she called out to the girl one more time when she spotted it, lying in the sandpit.

The stuffed dog, Hazelnut, that Eliza carried everywhere.

“No,” Jemma whispered, stumbling over to the sandpit and picking it up. “No.” She brushed the sand of it, and her fingers grazed against something tucked into the collar of the dog. It was a piece of paper. She pulled it out, and unfolded it. It took some time but eventually she was able to read what was written on it. Two simple words:

 _Hail Hydra_.

They had her. They had her and were sending a message. She just knew it.

She was just formulating her next move when she heard it, footsteps echoing behind her. Her breath caught in her throat and she tried to quieten her breath but it didn’t work. It was too loud and thundered in the empty night.

She knew she had to escape but she couldn’t. There was nowhere to run.

Hydra had found her.

“Put your hands in the air,” a voice called out. “And no one needs to get hurt.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A lot of these elements are Framework-y and it helped to give me the idea. Thanks for all the support so far, hope you enjoyed this one. Title from Missing by Evanescence.


	3. But I'm Still Having Nightmares

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title from Nightmares by All Time Low (yep, the album came out today and the lyrics worked perfectly!)

The fluorescent lights blinked on, signalling morning. He groaned rolling over in the bed and burying his face in the pillow. He had hoped he had more time before he had to wake up. More time before the day began. But he didn’t.

The night had been hard, the dreams overwhelming him again, stealing sleep from him. Every time he closed his eyes, the icy cold tendrils of horror wrapped around him, pulling him into horror, one that froze his body and starved him of oxygen. He always awoke, panting and covered in sweat but shivering at the same time, a tangle of limbs in the blankets. He mustn’t have had more than three hours sleep that night. And he knew that it would only get worse over the next number of days.

He sighed, rolling back over and staring up at the ceiling. Due to the age of the base most of the base along with the bunks had been redone, helping to ensure that there were no structural issues. S.H.I.E.L.D. was already low on numbers, low on agents. The last thing that they needed was for the base to cave in on itself.

He rubbed at his eyes, and then frowned. There was a crack running along the roof. He wondered if it had always been there. He was sure he would have noticed it if it had been. He was so lost in thought about a simple crack in plaster that he almost missed someone knocking on the door.

“Two minutes!” he called out. He sat up, rubbing at his face again and yawned before swinging his legs over the edge of the bed. His feet made contact with floor, cold in the early morning. He closed his eyes and let out a long low breath. He wasn’t ready for today. Not at all but he knew that he had to deal with it, just as he had before, and just as he would in the future.

Another knock on the door but this time, it seemed as though it was one of concern. “Fitz?” Daisy’s voice called out. “Are you? Are you okay?”

“Yeah, yeah!” he replied, hoping that his lie was convincing enough for Daisy. “Just getting dressed.” He reached for his trousers and slid them on, fastening the buckle of his belt. His shirt, which had been hidden under his trousers, was what he grabbed for next. He lifted it, and under the light, he could see that it wasn’t something that he could wear again. He threw it back onto the floor and stood up, making his way to the chest of drawers, pulling open it and searching through it.

Finally, he found a shirt, a soft blue one and he slid it on, buttoning it up. Kneeling down, he reached under the dresser and pulled out his shoes. Sliding them on, he finally made his way to the door and opened it, finding Daisy smiling there.

He smiled at Daisy but Daisy didn’t seem convinced. “The nightmares?” she asked tentatively, as if she were scared she was overstepping her mark.

Fitz wanted to lie, to say it was something else, anything else. That he and Hunter had stayed up too late, had one too many drinks. But it was Daisy, his closest friend, the woman who was like a sister to him. He couldn’t lie to her. He slowly nodded. “Yeah… yeah it was that.”

Daisy reached out and took one of his hands in her own, giving it a reassuring squeeze. “That’s okay.”

“Is it?” he asked, tying to keep the anger and the bitterness out of his tone but failing. He realised his mistake once he saw a look of pain pass across Daisy’s face, a look of pity. “Sorry.”

She shook her head, as if didn’t matter, as if it were no big deal. “It doesn’t matter. It’s been three years now Fitz. Three years exactly. It’s natural to have nightmares.”

“But I don’t have nightmares the rest of the year, they’ve gone, faded, but it’s just around this time, it makes me feel…” he sighed, waving his hand in a vague shrugging motion as if to show he had no idea what he was trying to say. “It makes me feel as if I’ve not recovered.”

Daisy seemed to disagree, shaking her head. “Bullshit. That’s bullshit and you know it Fitz. Look how much you’ve progressed.”

“But the dreams…” he tried to reply. “They just make me feel worthless.”

“You only have dreams when it comes up to… when it happened. The rest of the year you’re fine. It’s natural to feel like this after what you went through. It’s hard, and I’m not going to say that I understand what you went through because I don’t. But you survived and just look where you are now… no one thought you were going to pull through but you did. And once you did, no one thought you would be able to work again and here you are, head of the science department. And the best engineer I know.” She offered him a smile.

“I’m the only engineer you know,” he replied, going along with Daisy because she was right after all, and even though the doubts still remained, lined at the corners of his mind, Daisy was right. He had survived and he had pulled through.

Daisy pouted and bumped him with her shoulder. “That’s not true. What about the whole engineering department?” And before he could reply to that, she pulled him out of the room, leaving him to pull the door shut behind him. She continued to drag him down the corridor, the engineer stumbling over his feet trying to keep up with the Inhuman.

At one point she even shook his arm up and down, as if she were an impatient child. “C’mon Fitz! Hunter’s making a fry. I’m not missing that!”

***

He frowned, staring at the piece of technology in his hand. He had been trying to improve it for weeks now, but no matter how hard he tried, nothing he was doing was working. He had spent the past year developing it, and it had worked, allowing the Quinn Jets to be cloaked whenever it was activated but it was on temporary, lasting only an hour, maybe two, at a time. To Fitz, that wasn’t good enough.

Coulson said he didn’t mind, not yet anyway, and had installed the technology on one of the planes but Fitz was still working on trying to improve it, to make it better. It had to be better. It had to be.  Not when there were so many lives at risk, not when there were so many people in danger.

Not that there were many Inhumans left on the streets anyway. Most had gone into hiding, or underground. It was safer, safer than staying on the streets where anyone could turn them into Hydra. But there were few who remained where they were, people who couldn’t afford to go underground.

But the fight against Hydra, to make the world a safe place, and not just for Inhumans, it wasn’t going as well as they wanted.

It was a fight they were losing currently, Hydra capturing more and more Inhumans and doing who knows what to them.

And Fitz hated it, knowing that there was people suffering because he wasn’t good enough, his technology wasn’t good enough. But he wasn’t going to let that happen, not anymore.

He set the cloaking tile, along with a screwdriver back down on his workbench, and leaned back in his seat, putting his hands behind his head. He was tempted to take a break, to clear his head. It was just after three in the afternoon according to the clock on his computer, and he had been working on it since just after nine. He hadn’t even stopped for lunch. So maybe taking a break, getting something to eat and a mug of tea wouldn’t be a bad idea, allow him to clear his mind, and come back afresh.

But it also meant that he wouldn’t be focusing on something, and his mind could wander. It could wander back to that day, three years ago now, the day that was clearly burned into his mind and couldn’t be forgotten.

Sighing, he pushed himself back from his desk and exited the lab, making his way down the corridors of the Playground, the old S.S.R. base they were using, and had been using for the past two years. Thankfully Hydra hadn’t any record of it, Fury making sure of that before his death, which meant they were safe here for another while.

Walking into the kitchen, he found Hunter sitting at the table, reviewing a file. Hearing Fitz approach he looked up and offered a smile.

Fitz returned it, making his way to the fridge, opening it and looking inside, trying to find anything to eat.

“You okay?” Hunter asked. “I never saw you at lunch.”

Fitz removed his head from the fridge, and was clutching some of the ingredients necessary to make a sandwich. “What? Oh, yeah, yeah I just wasn’t hungry.”

Hunter looked at him, as if he were trying to work out the Scot, as if he were trying to decipher Fitz but in the end, he didn’t say anything, didn’t press the issue. “Rumour has it,” he settled on instead, “Coulson has a mission planned for later.”

“Who told you that?” Fitz asked, now slightly curious. Missions weren’t as common as they used to be, the funding low, and it was too risky. “Daisy?”

“Coulson called her into his office earlier and she hasn’t been seen since. May went in too.”

Fitz stared at Hunter, thinking this through. “You think we’ll be called in?” he asked, carrying the food over to the counter and reaching for a loaf of bread, beginning to make his sandwich. “Or is it one of those ones that just May and Daisy get put on?”

Hunter shrugged, closing the file. “Who knows. Who knows.”

***

As it turned out, there was a mission planned that day, Coulson calling a briefing just after six in the evening. Fitz had headed back to the lab after his late lunch, but had made no progress on the clocking technology, so he was somewhat glad of the mission.

It was something different, and that he was looking forward to.

But, upon entering the Director’s office, he found that not many had been called to the mission; it was himself and Hunter, along with May, Daisy, Bobbi, Davis and Piper. It seemed that Coulson wanted few people on this mission. Maybe to reduce the chance of casualties. Maybe he simply couldn’t afford it this month. Whatever the case, it didn’t matter.

“Who is she?” Hunter asked, staring at the picture of the woman on the screen. The quality wasn’t the best and looked as though it had been taken from CCTV footage. It was grainy, and the woman herself in the picture looked as though she was trying to avoid having her picture captured, her hood up and head down. But it had failed, and she had been caught on footage.

“Jemma Steranko, or to give her her birth name, Jemma Simmons.”

“What’s with the name thing?” Hunter replied. “Is it an undercover thing or something?”

Coulson shook his head, and his expression looked grim. “Her father was murdered when she was eight. She was placed in emergency foster care and was then adopted and took on the family name.”

“And what’s she to do with us?” Fitz asked, staring at the woman on the screen, trying to piece together this mission that Coulson was presenting them with.

Daisy took point this time, standing at the opposite side of the screen from Coulson. “We don’t know much about her. There’s nothing about her online. No schooling records, no medical records, no employment history. Not even a drunken selfie, nothing. It seems as if she doesn’t exist or…”

“She erased her records, all traces of herself,” Fitz thought aloud.

Daisy pointed at him. “Bingo. It seems as if she wiped all her records, we don’t know when, we don’t know how and we don’t know why. But we’ve been keeping an eye out for her for a while. I’ve still been in contact with a few Inhumans, those who remained above ground and they’ve told me she’s one of the best for helping to get them out of the country.”

“She’s a smuggler?” Hunter asked, his arms folded across his chest. He nodded, as though impressed.

“And she’s on the move tonight.”

“We’re bringing her in?” Bobbi asked. “Would she like that? Would she even want to come?”

Coulson spoke again this time. “Rumour has it Hydra are also after her. They want to put her down apparently, and that… we can’t let that happen. If we can get to her first, get her to come with us, then maybe, just maybe she can help us. Bobbi, Davis, Piper, you’re going into the field with May and Daisy.”

“And what about us Sir?” Hunter asked, gesturing between him and Fitz. “Are we not doing anything.”

Coulson looked at the mercenary. It had been a long day and at this point, he wasn’t prepared to deal with Hunter. “You two are staying here and helping with comms.”

***

“Am I not getting one?” Daisy protested as Fitz passed the helmet with the attached night vision goggles to Piper. “I always get one.”

Fitz turned to face her. “You broke the last one I gave you.”

She pouted. “Technically it wasn’t me.”

“You headbutted a Hydra operative whilst wearing them!”

“Exactly,” Daisy said, sliding on her gauntlets. “So it was his head that broke them.”

Fitz laughed, and walked over to the laptop that had been set up, wanting to check that the goggles were working fine. “I’ll make you a new set for the next mission. Or the mission after that. Depends.”

“You still struggling with the cloaking?”

“Yeah, and not only that, I can’t get the engines silenced. Well I can if I turn off all other features of the Jets such as navigation, heating and oxygen…”

“And those are kinda vital.”

“Yeah.”

Daisy walked past him, towards the door. She had stayed behind to talk to him, most of the others having already headed to the hangar (except Piper who was waiting in the corridor), and as she passed him, she gave him a gentle squeeze on the shoulder, as if to reassure him.

“Just stay safe,” he told her. “Don’t take any unnecessary risks!”

Daisy faked a look of disbelief. “When would I ever? Fitzy, I thought you knew me better than that.”

Fitz shook his head again, checking that everything was okay on the screen. “I mean it Daisy. Bobbi doesn’t want to be pulling any more bullets out of your shoulders.”

“Yes sir!”

And with that, she was gone. The door closed behind him and Hunter pulled up a chair, taking his place beside Fitz. “You ready?”

Fitz gave a heavy sigh. He knew they would be stuck here, unable to do anything and the mission might not even be a success. He hated being stuck on base, and he knew that Hunter did too. They had hoped when there was rumour of a mission that they would be leaving, be able to go outside, but that hadn’t been the case. “As ready as I can be. It could take hours.”

Hunter let out a breath and lifted something out of his pocket. Chocolate. “You think I didn’t come prepared?”

“Is that Daisy’s?” Fitz asked. “You know she’ll break your bed again. And your Liverpool shirt just about survived what she did to it last time.”

“Fitz,” Hunter said, in an affectionate tone. He wrapped an arm around the engineer’s shoulder. “Daisy owes you. How many dwarves has she broke? How many pranks has she played on you? Eating one, maybe two, of her bars of chocolate, it’s only fair.” He held up the item in question, and Fitz pondered it for a moment, then snatched it out of Hunter’s hand, unwrapping it and placing a piece in his mouth.

He couldn’t say no.

Hunter had put forward a convincing argument; it was only fair after all.

***

Hours passed before the team reached the location that Jemma was rumoured to be visiting tonight. Daisy had told them that her contact had mentioned that tonight, Jemma would only be dropping supplies tonight. They had a time and a location.

Fitz worried about it though, the mission. He was scared it was a set up. It was desperate times they lived in, where people resorted to anything and everything to survive. He didn’t want his team falling into Hydra’s hands because someone had tipped them off to stay alive.

“ _Fitz_?” Daisy’s voice echoed through the comms. “ _We’re at the location. Heat sensors are picking up someone in the playpark close by.”_

“You think it could be Jemma?” he asked as he looked at the screen. Piper had turned on the goggles and he was now seeing what she was seeing. “Piper, you’re okay. We’re seeing what you’re seeing.”

“ _Awesome, thanks.”_

 _“Yeah,”_ Daisy spoke again. “ _We think it’s her. We’re moving in.”_

“Be careful,” Fitz warned again, knowing that with the other agents there, there would be a better chance of Daisy listening. “Don’t do anything stupid and if you need to leave, leave.”

 _“I promise,”_ Daisy replied. “ _We’re going to have to go dark for the moment. Just until we know it’s safe.”_

Fitz sat back in his chair.

“You’re nervous?” Hunter asked.

“Yeah, yeah. We just can’t afford to lose any more agents, not now.”

Hunter nodded in agreement. “Let’s just hope this goes well.”

Fitz didn’t reply to this, just watched the screen as their team made their way towards the playpark. Bobbi lead the way, and pushed open the small gate, slightly rusted. She motioned for the team to stop, and Fitz saw then that there was a figure in the sandpit, crouched. They were looking at something. Bobbi took a step forward, after motioning for the rest of the team to wait.

“ _Put your hands in the air and no one needs to get hurt.”_

Her voice was stern, commanding and the figure did just that, rising slightly, and never once did they drop the stuffed dog. Their back was still Bobbi, who didn’t seem very happy with that, but their arms where in the air and it was clear they were unarmed.  “ _Face me,”_ was the next command that she issued and the figure paused hesitating.

“Is that her?” Hunter asked, staring at the figure on the screen, the figure that Piper was seeing through the night vision goggles. They spun on the screen, a stuffed dog held aloft in one hand, a panicked expression on her face.

 Fitz nodded, rubbing at the back of his neck. He remains silent for a moment. “Yeah, yeah it is her.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jemma's surname from the adoptive family comes from her undercover name in the comics!


	4. Please

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter tonight, slightly shorter but it leads into the main plot so hope you enjoy!

“Please,” she begged. “Please.” She could hear the desperation in her voice, and she hated it. Hated how weak she sounded, how pathetic she sounded, but she couldn’t help it.  

The woman standing opposite her, tall and blonde took a step forward, weapon raised and pointed at her chest. It wasn’t the first time she had a gun pointed at her, and she knew that it wouldn’t be the last. With what she did, it was an occupational hazard.

“Please,” Jemma tried again, knowing that it was useless to beg. That Hydra would never let her go, not after all she had done for the Inhumans. “Please. Don’t hurt me.”

The blonde shook her head. “We’re not going to hurt you, we’re not Hydra Jemma.”

“How do you know my name?”

Another woman stepped forward. She seemed closer to Jemma’s height, if only a bit taller and she seemed to be wearing metal gauntlets of some description. “You’ve helped a couple of friends of mine, Sam Simpson. Markus Brown. You got them out of here, brought them to safety. And you were helping John tonight. Him and his group. You were taking them to safety.”

“John’s dead,” Jemma whispered, her voice breaking. “He was murdered.”

The other woman, the one with the gauntlets paled. “Where is he?”

Jemma pointed to the other side of the playpark, where she had found John earlier and the woman spun, seeing the body for the first time. She cursed under her breath, not even going to investigate because it was obvious that John was dead. After taking a moment, the woman turned back to face her, and took a step forward. “Jemma, I’m Daisy. And this is Bobbi,” she said, gesturing to the blonde woman. “We’re with S.H.I.E.L.D. We can help you. We _want_ to help you. But first you need to trust us.”

“No,” Jemma said, her voice heavy with sobs and tears streaming down her face. “No, you can’t be. S.H.I.E.L.D fell. It fell.”

“It did,” the woman called Bobbi seemed to confirm. “But not all of us were Hydra. Some of us went into hiding. We’re working with Inhumans, helping them. We want to keep them safe. Daisy here is an Inhuman.”

Jemma turned her attention back to Daisy, and frowned. “Prove it. Prove you’re Inhuman.”

Daisy stepped forward and raised one arm, pointing it at the swing set. Then within seconds one of the swings swung backwards violently, flying so far back that it wrapped itself around the top beam, the metal of the chain clanging, shockingly loud in the silent night.

“See,” Daisy offered with a smile. “It’s safe. You can trust you.”

“Then let me go,” Jemma asked. “Let me go, please.”

“We can’t,” Bobbi told her, a look of pity across her face. “Hydra are after you, you’re at risk if you stay out in the open. Hydra are after you and they want to put you down. Kill you.”

Jemma froze, fear turning her blood to ice. “They’re after me?” Suddenly everything involving Eliza made sense. They had taken her, and left a message to get to Jemma. She should have known from the moment she saw the note. She should have. But to hear someone say it…

A nod from Bobbi. “We don’t want to hurt you Jemma, but it’s too dangerous. You can’t stay out here.”

Jemma shook her head, taking another step back, but she didn’t notice the edge of the sandpit, and she fell backwards, landing hard on the ground. A jolt of pain shot up her back. “Please, you have to let me go. I need to get to Eliza, I need to find her.”

“Eliza?” Bobbi asked, genuine concern in her voice. “Who’s Eliza?”

Jemma looked at the stuffed dog that she was holding. “She’s seven. Hydra… they took her. They have her. And I need to… I need to find her, I need to save her. I promised her, I swore to her that I would keep her safe. Please, you have to let me get to her.”

Bobbi shook her head, and made her way closer to Jemma, kneeling down beside her, offering to help her up. Jemma stared at her hand and after a moments pause, accepted the help up.

Bobbi gave a soft smile, glad that they had gotten through to Jemma. But the relief was short lived, as Jemma shoved her hard to the side and took off running across the playpark. But she never made it far, she hadn’t even reached the gate when the world went black and she collapsed to the ground.

“What the hell?” Bobbi demanded, staring at the unconscious form of Jemma on the ground. She spun back to face the team and saw May putting away an Icer.

“She wasn’t going to come,” May said by way of explanation. “Or would rather Hydra had put a bullet in her?”

Bobbi didn’t answer, and walked over to Jemma, rolling her over to check for any injuries. Somehow, despite falling face first onto the ground, the only injury was a slight graze to the forehead, with only a small amount of blood. “She’s fine,” Bobbi called to the team, lifting the smaller woman into her arms. “Back to base?”

May nodded, and made to leave the part when Daisy pointed out something that the others seemed to have forgotten. “John, what are we doing about him? We can’t leave him here. Not where anyone could see him. Not where kids could see him.”

May sighed. She didn’t have time for this. Coulson had given them a mission and they didn’t have time for this. Not now. But Daisy was right. They couldn’t leave the body there, not in a playpark. Not where children could see him. She looked around at her team; at Jemma in Bobbi’s arms, then sighed. “Davis, take him. We’ll deal with the body back at base.”

And with that, she headed back to the Quinn Jet.

***

Fitz knew that Jemma would have to be Iced, in fact it was him who had given May the command. Jemma had been panicking, refusing to come in. And he knew that Jemma would be somewhat angry when she awoke, back on base but it was the best option that they had.

Hydra was rumoured to be hunting her, wanting to kill her and she was important. Coulson said she was; he had said she was important. That she knew Inhumans better than most, how they acted, and where they were. That she might be able to help bring down Hydra and create a better world; one where Hydra wasn’t in charge and Inhumans weren’t being hunted on the streets.

But there had been something in his tone when he had given them the information about her, something suspicious, as if he were holding back information about Jemma, as if he knew something that they didn’t.

“ _Fitz,”_ May’s voice echoed through the comms. They were back on the Quinn Jet, Fitz having seen through Piper’s goggles. “ _We’re heading back to base. Get a containment pod ready.”_

“Yeah, yeah sure,” he said. “We’ll get that ready for you coming back. How long do you think you’ll be?”

“ _No more than three hours.”_ May said.

Fitz reached forward for the laptop again, closing down the program that was used for the night vision goggles, all being well. “Piper, you can take them off now. Just don’t let Daisy have them.”

On the other end, Daisy gave out a long groan annoyance, as though she were some child who was being denied something, and Fitz supposed that was true. Daisy was like such a big child when it came to technology.

“ _Fitz, prep medical team as well.”_ Bobbi’s voice came through. Of course they would need a medical team ready, they wold need to do an evaluation of Jemma, to make sure she was okay and that there was no injuries she had. And then there was the issue of John…

Fitz had only heard them discussing him, and seen only what Piper saw. And it hadn’t been pleasant; someone, presumably Inhuman, Daisy’s contact, had been murdered, a bullet put through his brain. Fitz didn’t know why, maybe to send a message, maybe it was making a point, maybe Jemma knew more about it, but whatever it was, he knew who had done it. Hydra. Of course it had been Hydra. There was no one else it could be.

“Of course,” Fitz said, “We’ll have that ready for you coming back to base. Just… safe travels.”

“ _Of course,_ ” Bobbi said. “ _We’ll see you soon_.”

And that was that.

The mission was nearly over. The fieldwork part had went well, none of their team had been injured. Now it was just getting back to base and dealing with whatever came next.

“Well,” Hunter said, breaking the silence that had formed in the room, “Looks like we’ve work to do.”

“Yeah,” Fitz said, but his voice was distant, as if he were thinking of something else. “Yeah, we do.”

***

They were close to base now and Jemma was still asleep, the dendrotoxin not having worn off yet. She still had the stuffed toy dog, Daisy presumed it belonged to Eliza, the girl that Jemma seemed desperate to find. The one that Hydra took.

A sinking sensation of guilt settled into her stomach, had they done the right thing, taking Jemma like this, bringing her back to base when there were other things that were so obviously important to her. Had they done the right, not allowing Jemma to go after Hydra?

She stood up, unable to take it anymore, and looked around; Bobbi was talking to Piper in hushed tones and the body of John was covered up with a blanket. Sighing, she made her way to the cockpit where Davis and May where.

“You can take a break,” she told Davis who looked at her, and started to protest, saying that it was okay, they were almost back at base anyway. “No, it’s fine seriously.”

The other agent rose from the chair and ducked out of the cockpit whilst Daisy took his seat and slid on the head piece. “You’re worried that we did the wrong thing.”

Daisy glanced over at the older agent. “How did you know?”

Not once did May look at her but she continued to speak. “You’re tense. You’ve been anxious the whole ride home and you keep looking at the stuffed dog.”

“I just can’t… Jemma’s gonna be pissed when she wakes up. She seems to care for that girl and Hydra has her…” Daisy shook her head, unable to believe that world that she lived in. It had been eight years since Hydra had come out of hiding, using the Terrigen crisis to their advantage, using people’s fears to promise a new world order and peace. And people had accepted it, seeing them as a way of stopping the rise of Inhumans (as opposed to how S.H.I.E.L.D. had helping Inhumans and welcoming them into society, but people didn’t want that). But as time progressed, Hydra had taken their rule, one of a dictatorial nature, further, and check points where set up in cities, ID’s where checked, and then they began testing everyone and anyone, and people started disappearing of the streets. It didn’t take a genius to work out that they carried the gene.

May sighed and turned to face Daisy, the woman she saw as a daughter. “We can get her back, the girl.” A pause, as if May was considering what she was going to say next. “And we _will_ get the girl back. But not now. It’s too dangerous. We need to make a plan, we can’t just storm Hydra. And we couldn’t let her go in. They would have killed her instantly.”

“Yeah…” Daisy said, knowing that the older woman was right. “I just wish Coulson told us _why_ we’re bringing her in.”

“He told us; she’s one of the best. She knows Inhumans better than anyone.”

Daisy frowned but May never saw, having turned her attention back outside once more. “I just wish he told us more, told us who exactly she is. I think he knows…” She ended up trailing off, as May signalled to base that they were close by and to get ready. She let out a frustrated sigh. She hated when Coulson kept secrets from them, but there was so few of them left now, and this was the last thing that they needed; more secrets.

She just sighed as she leaned back in her seat, as the Quinn Jet started to descend.

***

She was still sleeping off the effects of the dendrotoxin when they placed her into one of the containment pods. She had passed all her medical examinations, there was nothing wrong with her barring a few small cuts and scratches on her face that would heal with time, they wouldn’t even scar. The stuffed dog she had brought with her, the one that had belonged to the Inhuman girl who had been taken by Hydra and was sitting on the dresser in the room, as if it were keeping watch over everything.

“Fitz,” came Hunter’s voice from beside him. “You don’t have to stay here.”

“She’s gonna be so upset,” he replied, his voice low. Daisy had talked to him after debriefing. Although he had seen what Piper had seen, he hadn’t been to hear all of what they had heard, so Daisy had explained it all. Saying that Hydra had taken the child, for what reason, she didn’t know but she figured it was as means of drawing Jemma out. They wanted her, and knew she cared about the girl, it made logical sense. It also helped, in Daisy’s opinion, to explain how John had died. He must have died defending her. She had also said just how distressed Jemma had been, how she had begged and pleaded for them not to take her in, to allow her to go and get the girl instead. Fitz almost regretted his decision to tell May to Ice her and bring her in, but he knew it was for the best.

Hydra would have killed her, and maybe not immediately. If she had as many connections to the Inhumans as Daisy said, then they would have tortured her, tried to get as much information out of her that they could. So this here, having Jemma on base, using her to help them, it was safer. It was better than the alternative. At least this way, there was a better chance of rescuing Eliza.

“She’s gonna be so upset,” he repeated, turning to face  Hunter. “She wanted to rescue that girl, Eliza. She’s gonna be so upset.”

Hunter nodded, then looked at Jemma, at the gentle rise and fall of her chest. She was starting to toss and turn on the bed, the dendrotoxin starting to wear off. “She’s still going to be under for what, another hour or so?”

Fitz nodded. “Yeah, yeah.”

“Then let’s get a beer.”

Fitz stared at his friend. “Is that all you think about?”

“It’s after six in the morning, we’ve been up for nearly a day. The mission was a success. We brought her in, none of our team got hurt. We deserve this.”

Fitz cast once more anxious glace at Jemma before turning back to Hunter, then nodded slowly. He was right. They had been up for twenty-four hours now. The mission had been a success. They deserved a break. So Fitz nodded. “Yeah, yeah.”

Hunter smiled. “Let’s go. I’ll make breakfast again.”

“Just don’t burn the bacon again.”

“One time! It happened one time!”

Fitz just shook his head laughing, and followed Hunter down the corridor, leaving Jemma in the containment pod, still asleep and oblivious to what the next number of hours would hold.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the comments and kudos, they really make me smile!


	5. Now I Find Myself Alone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay, this chapter was slightly harder to write but thanks for all the support. Hope you enjoy! Title from Caged by Within Temptation

The first thing that she noticed was the light; it was white and bright and flooded her vision, wakening her. She groaned, rolling over and burying her face in the pillow. It was blinding. Scrunching her eyes shut, she allowed herself to concentrate not on light, but on her other surroundings. The bed she was in was crisp and clean. It wasn’t her bed. It couldn’t have been her bed.

Taking a breath, she rolled back over and sat up, opening her eyes. She squinted as she adjusted to the light and once she did, she looked around, taking in the room she was in. It definitely wasn’t her apartment. It was a small room, bright white. There was a table and chair in it, a screen that showed an image of a countryside somewhere on the far wall and a dresser, with three drawers. It was a soft brown. And on it sat Hazelnut.

Definitely not her dark and dingy apartment.

Jemma frowned, standing up. She rolled her shoulders and tried to think of what had happened the previous night, well what she had presumed was the previous night. There was no way to tell the time, or how much had passed since she last had consciousness. 

Being taken at the playpark could have happened days ago as far as she knew.

The memories of what had happened were blurred, coming back to her slowly. She remembered going to the drop off zone, leaving the back pack with Nick and the others.

She knew after that she had headed off to the playpark, only to find that John had been murdered and Eliza missing.

Eliza…

She was missing.

Taken by Hydra.

And Jemma, she was here, wherever here was.

The ones who had captured her had claimed they were S.H.I.E.L.D. But they couldn’t be. S.H.I.E.L.D. had fallen eight years ago now, Hydra destroying them as they came into power. S.H.I.E.L.D. had fallen, and Hydra had risen, throwing her already turbulent life into further turmoil.

So they couldn’t be S.H.I.E.L.D., they just couldn’t.

She ran her hand through her hair, the strands vaguely greasy as they trailed through her fingers. She looked around the room, her eyes taking in everything, her brain storing everything about the room for future reference; the size of the room, the furniture and their exact positions.

Pacing about, she looked for any vents, anything she could use to escape. There was one door, with a window, but she didn’t want to have to use that, not unless she had to. She didn’t know where she was being held captive, she was at a disadvantage here. And she wasn’t going to risk getting hurt, getting _killed_ even. Not when Eliza was out there, somewhere. Alone, lost. Scared.

Her hands trailed over the walls, her fingers catching in the notches between the hexagon patterns on the walls. There was no way out, not without using the door.

Shaking her head, not wanting to do it but knowing she had to, she walked over to the door. She knew it was a stupid idea but she tried pulling on the handle, it didn’t give. Not at all. It was a stupid idea and she was about to turn and leave, taking a few steps even when something caught the corner of her eye. She walked back over.

There was a touchscreen keypad next to the door. Tilting her head, she frowned, and leaned in close. If she were lucky, she would be able to see the marks a finger or a thumb might have left on it. And if she had that, she could work out the password. Well, she could try. She had no idea how many attempts she had, how long the passcode even was. But she had to try.

So she leaned in close, and tried to see if there were any marks left on the screen, oily residues from which to try and work out the passcode.

***

“What’s she doing?” Daisy asked, frowning.

Fitz made his way across the room, to where the Inhuman was sitting and pulled up a seat, joining her as she continued her job at keeping an eye on Jemma in her containment pod. He leaned in close, frowning at the screen. “I think she’s trying to hack the keypad. Trying to figure a way out.”

“Can she do that?” Daisy asked, confusion heavy in her voice. “She can’t do that. We designed those. Surely it won’t be possible.”

Fitz leaned back, shrugging. “I have no idea.” A yawn escaped him. He wanted to sleep. Really wanted to sleep, but Coulson had said that until they knew more about Jemma, until they knew who she was and what her motive was, they would all be working overtime. It annoyed Fitz slightly. He didn’t mind working overtime when he was actually working on something that would be beneficial to the organisation, something that would help to destroy Hydra… but this…

No, he couldn’t work like this. He had been up for over twenty-four hours now, and was running purely of caffeine now. All he wanted was at least two hours sleep, even if they were plagued by nightmares. Surely, that wasn’t too much to ask.

“I hate this,” Daisy whispered, her voice dropping so only he could hear her. She cast an anxious glance at Piper and Davis who were standing in the far corner of the room but neither of them had heard her. “I hate this. Keeping her here.”

“Is this cause of the girl?”

“Eliza? Yeah.” Daisy gave a heavy sigh and turned to face her friend. “We shouldn’t have Iced her, brought her here. We should have let her go. Let her find the girl…”

“No,” Fitz interrupted, shaking his head. “No. We did… we did what was best. Hydra, letting her go to them, it would have been a trap. They would have killed her. Tortured her. Bringing her here, it was the safest option. If what Coulson thinks is true, then she can help us. Help us destroy Hydra. We need that Daisy, we can’t let Hydra win, we can’t let them hurt anyone else and if she can help us, then she’s better here than out there.”

Daisy’s voice dropped even lower. “Do you think Coulson’s keeping something from us about her, like did you see how he acted during the briefing. How he avoided our questions when we asked _who_ she was?” She shook her head, her hair curtaining her face. “I just don’t want any more secrets, I can’t handle anymore secrets Fitz.” She sighed, letting out a long breath, exhaustion clearly evident in it. The night hadn’t been long just for him, but for Daisy, the rest of the team as well.

“I know,” he whispered, trying to reassure his friend but he knew how she felt. How it felt to be excluded, to have those closest to him keep secrets. “How about…” he paused, taking a breath then trying again. “How about we try and figure out what Coulson’s keeping from us?”

A wicked grin passed across her face. “Have I just roped you into my bad girl shenanigans?” She raised an eyebrow, teasing him but Fitz just shook his head and turned back to the screen and what he saw, it caused the room to drop by at least ten degrees and his stomach to twist. “Fitz?” Daisy asked, once she saw that her friend was no longer joking around, and turned to see what had captured his attention. “Shit,” she whispered. Her eyes flickered over the screen frantically, taking in what was happening.

Jemma was curled up on the floor. With no sound and only the images on the screen, they couldn’t tell if she was in physical pain, if she were in emotional pain or if it were all part of some trick. “What should we do?” Daisy asked, turning to face Fitz. “Is she in pain?”

“I don’t know,” he replied, his face paling. She was in a ball on the floor. It could all be a trick, or she could be in pain due to some unknown aliment, an injury that was missed during the medical examination.

“We should send someone in, just to check on her. Just to make sure she’s okay.” Daisy reached for the mouse, zooming in close to Jemma. “We need to send someone in.” She spun. “Piper, Davis, you need to go down to Jemma’s room.”

“Why?” Piper asked, crossing the room and joining them. “Shit.”

Daisy nodded in agreement. “Yeah…”

“What’s wrong with her? Is she hurt?”

Fitz shrugged, rubbing nervously at the back of his neck with his hand. “We just… on minute she was fine, looking for a way out and the next… she’s lying on the ground.”

“It could be a trick,” Piper argued but her voice sounded hesitant.

“It could be but what if it something we’ve missed. What if somethings wrong with her?” Daisy shook her head, leaning back. “I don’t know what to do.” She let out a breath, hoping to calm herself. Coulson had put her in charge of the other woman, maybe because Jemma seemed to trust her more than anyone else on the team that night, maybe because it was because Daisy was Inhuman or because she knew the same people that Jemma knew, but she had been put in charge of the other woman, and now… now this had happened.

“Daisy.” Fitz’s voice snapped her back to reality, and she found the he had spun both of them around so that they were facing. “What do you think you should do?”

“I think that Piper and Davis should check on her. Just in case.”

Fitz smiled, and there was a twinkle in his eyes. “Then let’s do that.”

Daisy nodded. “Yeah, yeah okay. But no weapons. That’s the last thing that she needs.”

***

They heard Jemma from down the corridor, before they had even seen the containment pod. The noise she gave, it couldn’t even be described as a cry. Those words wouldn’t do it justice. It was a low, mournful noise, that seemed to chill them to their bones, sent a shiver down their spines and pained them to their very cores.

“What do you think?” Davis asked, just before they reached the door to her containment pod.

Piper shrugged, unsure herself. Maybe it was to do with Eliza. Maybe it was cramps. Maybe it was some aliment that Bobbi had missed. But whatever it was, it wasn’t good. “I don’t know,” she thought aloud. “But we should be careful, just in case it is a trick.”

“Of course,” Davis agreed, trying to keep the annoyance, the hurt out of his voice. He had been a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent for long enough now to know what a trick was, and what it could possibly look like, as well as the proper way to proceed if there was a possible trap occurring. “I’ll be careful,” he assured, offering Piper a smile and reached for his swipe card, and unlocked the door to the containment pod.

“Miss Simmons?” Piper called out once they had entered, staying back a bit as the other agent knelt close to her. “Jemma?”

Still the cries came from her, and Davis was careful as he knelt down next to her, placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder. And that’s when, from his perspective, everything went wrong.

Jemma started to sit up slowly, carefully, then flung her head back violently, hitting him in the face. He gave a wince of shock, a wince of pain, and brought his hands up to his face. He felt the blood trickle down his face, the iron taste on his lips in seconds. It took moments for him to realise what was happening, his vision slightly thrown off due to the pain. What really brought him back to reality was the sound of a body hitting the ground. As horrible it had sounded, he had hoped that it was Jemma.

It was obvious that Jemma had played them, tricking them to try and break free, and she was going to try to escape. They needed to stop her. For her own protection. They didn’t want her to hurt herself.

A groan knocked him out of his thoughts and he turned to face them, whoever it was on the ground, fighting the sickening dizziness, and saw that Piper was lying on the ground. Davis stood, wiping away the blood off his face, and offered her a hand.

She nodded her thanks, and stared around the room. Jemma wasn’t there, and Piper cursed under her breath. “We need to find her.”

Davis nodded in agreement.  “We need to find her.”

***

It wasn’t the first time in recent years that Jemma had been thankful for the self-defence lessons that her adoptive parents had forced her through. When the two agents had come in to check on her, she had taken advantage of the fact they had lowered their defences.

She had taken the first one out by throwing her head back, breaking his nose probably and in the moment of confusion, she had been able to take down the other agent. All it had taken was one quick swipe, taking the legs out under her.

Then she had fled. She had no idea where she was but she just knew she had to run. She had to get out of here and find where Hydra was keeping Eliza. She had to save her, she just did. She would save Eliza and then they would flee. Leave the country. Get away from the reach of Hydra’s tentacles.

Eliza deserved so much better than what she had suffered. And Jemma was going to ensure that she got that happy ending, like the ones she so loved in Disney movies.

But first, she had to get out of here.

She really had no idea where she was but at the end of the corridor, she took a right. She wouldn’t have long; her little trick would have been caught. And they, whether they were S.H.I.E.L.D. or not, would be sending agents after her, something that she didn’t want.

She continued down the corridor, and then took a left at the end of that one, running even faster now. She passed a handful of people who seemed confused, wondering who she was and what she was running from. Eventually, with her lungs on fire and barely able to get a breath in, Jemma reached a staircase, leading only up. She paused, casting a quick glance over her shoulder. She saw no one yet but heard shouting from the far end of the corridor, the sound of boots pounding on the concrete. Taking a few quick rapid breaths, ignoring the way it pained her throat, she made her way up the staircase.

She didn’t know how many steps there were before she found a door, an old metal thing. She used her shoulder, bursting through it, not that there was much resistance to begin with and came stumbling out into another corridor, one with brick walls and more lights than the ones below had.

She stopped, there were people everywhere but none of them, not a single person had a weapon raised, a gun pointed at her. She spun slowly, looking around her when she heard someone call her name.

She took one small step forward, down the corridor, then another and another and all eyes were on her. One of the walls, the one to her right changed, the wall becoming more modern, glass taking up part of it. On the other side was a lab, and the Inhuman from that night, Daisy, was standing in the doorway smiling at her. “You’re okay.”

Jemma nodded, still not fully understanding what was happening, why no one was attacking her. “I’m safe, I’m safe here? No one’s going to hurt me?”

Daisy shook her head but it wasn’t her that spoke. It was the agent behind her, slightly taller with soft blue eyes and a softer smile. “No, no one’s going to hurt you here. You’re safe Jemma.” He didn’t sound as if he were from the local area. He didn’t even sound as if he were even from the country. He was Scottish, and if she were placing his accent accurately, more specifically Glasgow.

“How?” she asked, knowing that this could be a trick that in moments one of the agents standing by so passively could simply reach for a weapon, and put a bullet through her brain like they had with John.

His smile grew even wider, into a knowing grin. “Look behind you.”

She shook her head.

“It’s okay,” he reassured. “We won’t hurt you. Promise. Just… just look behind you.”

She closed her eyes, letting out a breath, then spun. There was something about his voice, something trustworthy about it. It was warm, it was kind, it was friendly. And after a moment, she opened her eyes, not stopping the gasp that escaped her.

It was the S.S.R. symbol, painted onto the chipping brick wall. The S.S.R that had been set up by _Peggy Carter._ “This is real,” she whispered, everything now making sense, everything falling into place in her mind. She was safe. They weren’t going to hurt her.

And if she was lucky, they would help her find Eliza.

“It is.” A new voice. She spun in the direction of the voice, to find that it belonged to an older man. “Welcome to S.H.I.E.L.D.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So we got out first FitzSimmons scene. Thanks for checking out and for all your love, it always makes me smile. Hope you enjoyed this chapter!


	6. Welcome To S.H.I.E.L.D.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the support, it makes me smile so very much, I'm so glad that you're enjoying this (and there will be more FitzSimmons in the next chapter!)

She spun, once, twice, three times, taking in everything. At all the people standing there, taking her in as well. It was slightly surreal. Once she spun back to him, looking at him a second longer than anyone else, Fitz gave her a soft smile, to reassure her that it was okay, that she would be safe here. That no one would hurt her here, that they would help her here.

The edges of her mouth looked as though they were about to flick up as well when Coulson cleared his throat. She spun back to face him. “Miss Simmons,” he began, once he had her attention again. “Would you mind coming with me to my office, I’ve a few things to talk to you about.”

She suddenly looked as if she were a deer caught in the headlights of a truck, nowhere or no one to turn to. Fitz could see the slight anxious shaking of her hands. The fear of having to go somewhere alone was not  pleasant sensation but then Daisy spoke up. “We can go together sure.” She gave a friendly reassuring smile, to show Jemma that it would all be alright.

Coulson’s attention soon turned to face the Inhuman. “Daisy, this is a matter for just the two of us.”

Daisy shrugged. “I can walk with you. Get to know our new recruit a bit more. What do you say?”

Jemma slowly turned back to face Daisy, some of the worry and fear ebbing out of her. It didn’t fade completely, but slowly the woman nodded. “That would be lovely, thank you.” Her soft English lilt cut through the silence that had formed in the corridor.

Daisy stepped out of the doorframe and towards Jemma. “Great let’s go.” And leaning in, she whispered into her ear, “And I’ll tell you where Fitz over there hides the chocolate.” She threw back her thumb, pointing at him. “He’s not so good for a secret agent when it comes to hiding things.”

This got a soft, short laugh out of Jemma, and together with Daisy and Coulson, they walked down the corridor, towards his office. And once they were gone, everyone went back to their jobs, the excitement of seeing someone new, a new face amongst the ranks having seemingly worn off.

Fitz went back into the lab, sliding in his seat and grabbing the desk, using it to pull him closer, and had just logged back into the computer when he heard it, the bickering.

Piper and Davis. He sighed. They were at it again. They always seemed to be at it now a-days, arguing over one thing or another. Maybe they were trying to get May’s approval, to show her they were the capable field agents she thought they were; maybe they wanted the promotion that was rumoured to be coming soon; or maybe they just bickered because they could, enjoying winding one another up like children.

“Forward!” came Piper’s voice as they came into the lab, her voice now slightly louder. She seemed annoyed for some reason. Fitz looked up, wanting to see what the commotion was. He knew they had been injured when they had gone to check on Jemma, the entire thing being a trick after all; Piper being knocked to the ground and Davis being headbutted. He had hoped they would go to medical, annoy someone down there instead. But it was apparent that medical either hadn’t wanted them or they had decided to bypass medical altogether and come straight down to the lab. Whatever the answer was, it seemed that they would be annoying Fitz for a while longer.

He looked up from his work, not that he had had gotten much done, he had simply unlocked the computer and looked over to the two other agents. Piper was limping slightly, and Fitz wasn’t surprised. She had went down hard. She was dragging Davis by the elbow now, the other agent a step behind her, head tilted back with blood running over his face.

She stopped at one point in the lab, and pulled out a chair, forcing him into it. “Sit.” She stepped back, and spun, looking for something. Tissues.

It had to be. Fitz pulled open one of the drawers in his desk, and grabbed a pack, throwing it to her. She caught it in the air, giving a nod of thanks and turned back to face her patient. “Forward!” she shouted again, clearly exasperated by Davis.

“But mum told me tilting it back is what you do.”

Piper let out a breath, one full of anger but also, one to calm herself and passed him a tissue. “Well your mother is an idiot. You don’t tilt back. Do you want to swallow all that blood? Have another nosebleed.” She paused, as if considering the next word. “Vomit?” She drew out the word, teasing him.

Davis’ head shot forward, faster than Fitz thought was possible. He reached up, holding the tissue in his hand, and pinching it. The white of the tissue was soon soaked with blood, and he dropped it to the ground. Piper sighed, passing him another one.

“Do you think she’ll trust us?” Fitz asked, breaking the silence that had formed. Piper shrugged, spinning around to face him, then decided to hop up onto the desk, sitting on it, her legs hanging over the edge and she swung them, her heels hitting of the wood.

“Maybe. Not yet anyway.” She let out a breath, one of her cheeks puffing out. “She’s a good fighter, I’ll give her that.” She gave a small bop of her head, as if nodding her approval.

“You okay?” he asked, about to stand up, getting ready to give her a check over if needs be.

Pipe gave another nod. “Nothing more than a few bruises I’ve survived worse. Should have heard Davis though,” she gave a laugh, thinking back to the memory. “Poor poor man.” She shook her head, laughing more now.

“Oi,” Davis warned, dropping the second tissue, and lifting his head back into the upright position. “Watch it _Pippa.”_

Piper slid of the desk, standing up in front of him, arms crossed. “You did not just go there.” She sounded horrified, as if he offended her very family by calling her by her first name.

He raised on shoulder, a playful grin sliding across his face. “It was you who started it, _Pippa_.”

An eyebrow raised and Piper took a step closer to Davis, forcing him to remain in the chair, unable to stand, leaning forward, her face inches from his. “At least it wasn’t me who cried like a baby during the ending of Titanic!”

Davis looked affronted and it was at this point that Fitz just shook his head in shock, unable to believe the two agents. They were grown adults, and here they were acting like children. And if they kept that up, they wouldn’t even be considered for the promotion that was talked about in hushed tones.

But despite trying to get back to work, Fitz could still hear them bickering. He groaned, not too loudly, but loudly enough for them to hear, and hope they got the message.

They didn’t.

“You promised!” Davis cried affronted. “You promised you would never tell anyone that!”

Piper shrugged, tilting her body slightly so she could pull open and reach into the drawer on the desk next to her. After some fumbling, she pulled out a first aid kit, and unclicked the latch, flicking it open. “And you promised you would never call me by my first name,” she retorted. “We both broke promises today.”

She reached over, and pulled out something from a first aid kit, confusion now sweeping across Davis’ face, wondering what she was doing. “Piper?” he asked, knowing that when she had an idea in mind, it was never a good thing. “Piper? What are you doing? Piper?”

She had pulled out something from the box, and was unwrapping it. Once she seemed to be done, she placed it on his face, on his nose, not being nearly as careful as she could have since it was broken. She stepped back, tilting her head as if examining her work and once she was happy, she nodded, and reached into her pocket, pulling out her phone.

Snapping a picture wasn’t hard, and Davis’ face, one of anger and fear was something she was going to hold onto forever. And the picture was perfect for blackmail. She could twist the other agent to her very will for years to come.

She smirked.

“What?” he asked. “What have you done?” He reached up, feeling his face, and felt what it was she had placed on his nose, wincing in pain when he bumped it too hard with his fingers.

She spun it, allowing him to see what she had taken. She had done what he thought she had done; she had placed a plaster over his nose, making him look like some comic book character, the clumsy side character in a really bad comedy film. She laughed, sliding the phone back in her pocket and stepped back, no longer cornering him into the seat.

He looked up at her, eyes heavy and full of seething rage. He could only mutter two words to her. “Fuck off.”

***

Daisy hadn’t been able to come into the older man’s, Coulson, office, for the meeting, but she had accompanied Jemma down the corridor, for which Jemma was thankful for. She seemed nice, friendly, and it helped to settle the butterflies that had been fluttering angrily in her stomach.

The office itself was spacious, and filled with what looked like collector’s items of anything Coulson could find. It was also bright, and Jemma couldn’t help but stare at the room.

“You’re impressed,” Coulson commented, taking a seat on the other side of the desk from Jemma.

She snapped her attention back to him, and nodded. “I am. It’s completely different from my apartment.”

He nodded in understanding, his arms crossed on his desk, a pen to the left of him. “I suppose you’re wondering what you’re doing here, Miss Simmons.”

She shook her head. “It’s actually Dr. Simmons, but feel free to call me Simmons, or just Jemma. I was never one for titles.”

He raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t know you were a doctor.”

She waved him off. “You’ve researched me, I take it. There’s nothing on me online, something that I intend to keep that way, at least until Hydra is gone. But yes, I am a doctor. Biochemistry. I had my first by sixteen, and the second just after I turned eighteen.”

 A look of impression swept across his face, and he gave a nod of approval. “We could use your skills around here more than we thought.”

“But _why_ do you need me?” she asked.

“Ahhh,” he began, leaning back in his chair. “We believe that you can help us bring down Hydra. You know their moves better than anyone. You know how they work better than most of us. And the Inhumans…”

In the pause in his speech, Jemma cut in. “I won’t tell you where they are, if that’s what you want. They won’t trust you, not really. They know that S.H.I.E.L.D. fell because of Hydra, and they won’t trust you. They’re scared, living in a world of fear. They won’t trust you.”

“But you do.”

“Because I’ve seen the base, though I still have my fears, my worries. But you’re not going to be able to do that will all the Inhumans, there’s too many, and most have left the country, are in hiding and I’m sorry, but that’s not information I’m going to divulge.”

“Understandable,” Coulson says and Jemma feels a rush of relief at this. “But what do you say about helping us, Jemma?”

She raised an eyebrow taking him in; he had yet to say just what it was that she would be doing, how she would be helping them to defeat Hydra. “How? What would I be helping you with? Out of everyone, why have you chosen me?”

Coulson shifted uncomfortably in his seat, as if trying to find the words that would be most appropriate, trying to find the words that would suit the situation best. He opened, then closed, then opened his mouth a number of times. “We brought you here because there was a rumour that Hydra wanted to kill you, capture you. You’re safer here than out there…”

“But they have Eliza,” Jemma cut in, putting her plan into action. She was going to use Eliza’s disappearance, her kidnapping to her advantage. If she could manipulate S.H.I.E.L.D., she could use them and their resources to find the young girl and maybe also find out the answer to a question that had been on her mind for two decades now.

She could maybe find out who it was that killed her father. She still had no answers, not even after all this time; the night he had been killed, and in the days after, she had been taken in by an emergency foster family, who had then adopted her, raising her as if they were her own. She had loved them, they were family after all, but they didn’t understand her. Not really. They tried their hardest, getting her work that would suit her abilities, but they could never help her like he did.

And they had forced her into all those extra-circular activities with their own children; a girl her own age; Martha and twins that were three years younger; Brendon and Matt. They had said it was to help her own personal development, to help her grow as a person but they had never gone well, Jemma leaving them soon after she joined them; ballet had lasted two weeks, art classes a month. Self-defence had been the one she had stayed in the longest, three months but she hated that. The only reason she had stayed as long as she had was because her adoptive parents had refused to let her drop out of another activity (and the fact they had paid for all three months in one go, and didn’t want the classes to go to waste) but she had really hated it. She had come home from every class covered in bruises and tears streaming down her face.

After that, they had stopped enrolling her in things, seeing that it wasn’t going to work out. Instead, they left her to do what she liked best; study and try and find out who had killed her father. It wasn’t healthy, especially not for a girl of ten years of age, to simply lock herself in her room all day and do stuff like this, but it was what she seemed happiest doing so they let her get on with it.

But still, after years of searching, she was no closer to finding who had killed her father, seemingly in cold blood. Who had taken away the one person who meant more than anything to her in the world.

“The young Inhuman girl?” Coulson asked, his voice bringing her back to the present, worry laced on his face. Jemma nodded.

“I need to find her. I promised her she would be safe. And now, now Hydra have her.”

“We can help,” he said, and Jemma felt a wave of relief washing over her. “Maybe they’re using her as bait, using her to lure you in.”

“They would do that?”

A nod. “It wouldn’t be the first time that Hydra have done something like that. But we’re going to need all the information on her that we can, her powers, what she looks like, everything.”

Jemma nodded, knowing that it would be the best thing to do if she wanted Eliza to be safe. “Please, help me find her. She doesn’t… she deserves better, to not grow up in a world where people like her are being hunted, simply because they are different.”

“We’ll do everything we can to help find her, in exchange for your help. You help us, we help you. Sound like a deal?”

Jemam thought for a moment, then nodded. Helping bring down those who had caused so much pain. She went to nod but Coulson said something that caused her to stop.

“There’s something else you want, isn’t there?” But his tone wasn’t angry, it was somewhat inquisitive.

She let out a quick, nervous laugh. “How did you know?”

The corners of his mouth turned up into a fond smile. “I’ve spent more than enough time with Daisy to know when people are hiding things from me.”

She sighed, and opened her mouth. Then closed it again. Then opened it again. “My father… he was murdered when I was eight. They never found out who did it…”

“And you want us to help?”

“I want closure. I want justice. I want to know who killed him.”

“We can try and help. There’s no guarantee that we can, but we’ll try out best.”

Jemma nodded, understanding. “I have a notebook, at ho- at my old apartment, I can get it.”

A shake of the head, slow and weary. “I’m sorry, we can’t do that. We can’t let you go back there. With any luck, Hydra have already been there.”

“But it has everything!” Jemma cried, slightly indignant. “Please, it’s all that I have of my father. I can’t lose it.”

“We’ll send a team out to your apartment, grab some of your stuff but you can’t accompany them.”

She hated the idea, loathed it even but she nodded, agreeing. It was the only thing that she could do. “I agree. I’ll help in the lab, do whatever that needs to be done if you help me.”

Coulson smiled. “I think that’s all. I think that this deal between us could work.” He extended a hand across the table, one that Jemma took and shook. “Well, Dr. Simmons, welcome to Level One.”


	7. Bloodwork

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the delay! Thanks for all your continued support! I hope you enjoy this chapter!

After signing the relevant paperwork (and there was so much of it that Jemma had a cramp in her hand by the end of it), Coulson took her on a tour around the base, showing her where the communal area was, where the kitchen was and where the lab was. He told her he would have taken her to her bunk, but it would have to wait until later, as they were clearing it out for her. She had nodded in understanding, saying that that was fine. And thanking him for that, her own space. He had replied by telling her of course she would be getting her own space, they couldn’t not give her a bunk.

Once he had taken her around the base, showing her the rooms that she would be in often, he took her back to the corridor to where his office was. Then something struck Jemma as Coulson started to walk off. “Sir!” she shouted after him and he turned, halfway down the corridor. She did a little half jog to meet him. “I don’t have any clothes, anything with me,” she said, gesturing to herself and realisation seemed to flash across his face.

“Ahhh,” he replied, chewing on his lip. “We can provide you with toiletries, the necessary items, but if there’s anything in particular you’re looking for, write it down and pass it onto Daisy. The next shop isn’t for another week but we can get you sorted in the meantime. We’ve some spare supplies. As for clothes, I’ll let Piper and Davis know, and they can get some stuff for you from your apartment. If they can’t, then May and Daisy would be more than happy to lend you some of their stuff. Is there anything else?”

She paused for a moment, thinking, then she shook her head. “No… I think that’s everything.” She smiled up at him. “Thank you… sir.”

He gave a quick bop of his head before turning on his heel, and walking back down the corridor, probably back to his office.

Jemma stood in the corridor for a moment, looking around her. A couple of agents pushed passed her, apologising as they did so. She had no idea what to do next. Coulson had told her she had no bunk to go to yet, so she couldn’t rest and she wasn’t hungry, not really, so going to the kitchen was a no go as well. She didn’t have the confidence yet to go into the lounge, only being on first name basis with a handful of agents.

She could go to the lab, get acquainted with the space. Daisy had been clearing her a space when they had visited earlier, and the woman had told her that it would be ready for her whenever she would want it. And she would have her own computer… that could be useful. Extremely useful.

Turning on her heel, she headed back towards the lab, going through her plan in her mind; she had a basic knowledge of coding, not a lot but enough that she could build a program, something that could track and locate wherever Hydra might be hiding Eliza. And this was S.H.I.E.L.D., they would have better software than what pirated programs her laptop had. The thing had been a cheap model, something she'd stolen from some second-hand store years ago now. But it had survived and helped her the past five years, and that she wasn’t going to complain about.

She was so lost in her thoughts, formulating her plan that she almost walked into someone, the tall blonde woman who had been in the play-park that night. “Oh,” Jemma apologised upon realising what had almost happened. “Sorry.”

The woman, Bobbi, shook her head. “No, you’ve nothing to apologise for, if anything, we should be apologising to you for what happened the other night.” She paused, thinking about what she was saying next. “It was the safest way…”

“It’s okay,” Jemma reassured, interrupting her. “I understand, honestly. I just…” She shook her head, not knowing where she was going with that she was saying. “You were only trying to protect me, to keep me safe…”

“And you were scared, you didn’t know that we were S.H.I.E.L.D., not Hydra. That’s understandable, especially out there. It’s hard. But how are you now? Are you okay?” Jemma stared at the taller woman, taking her in and trying to work out more about her, figure out who she was as a person. So far, she seemed to be nice. Jemma just hoped that she wasn’t making a misjudgement.

Jemma nodded, deciding that this would be the best option. She was as okay as she could be at this point in time. Eliza was still missing and that… it was causing her stomach to twist, a sensation that had been with her the past number of days and something that would linger with her until she found Eliza and the girl was safe. The young girl deserved so much better than this but hopefully she would be safe in a few days, away from this world of danger and having the life, the childhood that someone of her age should have. “I was just heading to the lab. It’s been years since I’ve been in one.”

This seemed to impress Bobbi. She had only told Coulson, Daisy and Fitz so far about her qualifications and even with them she had been reluctant to do it, not because she didn’t want to work but because she had gotten them so young that speaking about them always made her feel guilty as though she were boasting about what she had. “I didn’t know that you worked in a lab?”

A smiled crept slowly across Jemma’s face. “I did, up until about eight years ago… When I wiped all my records. I’m biochemistry… Two doctorates.” If Bobbi noticed the fear, the anxiety in her voice, she never mentioned it.

Bobbi let out a long, low whistle as if she were extremely impressed. “We have to work together one day, show me your work.”

“You work in the lab?”

She gave a shrug of one shoulder. “Occasionally. I’m mainly a field agent but I have my experience in the lab. Listen, I’ll talk to you later, I’ve training with May.”

Jemma nodded, watching as the woman walked past her, and down the corridor, turning right at the end. Once she was gone, the young Brit continued her journey to the lab, pushing the door open slowly and standing in the doorway for a moment, taking in everything. It was bright, light and full of hustle and bustle and only two people seemed to notice her.

The Scotsman, and the Inhuman, Daisy both looked up from a computer when they heard the door open, smiling at her as she stood there. Daisy beckoned her over to them, and Jemma, after pausing for a second, made her way across the lab. She smiled softly. “Hi.”

Daisy returned the smile. “Hey. Your space is ready if you wanna use it later. Still sorting out your bunk though.”

Jemma nodded. “Thanks.”

She cast a glance over her shoulder at the space that would become hers for however long she stayed here for. “Do I need a log in?”

“Oh, there’s a note left on the desk,” Daisy confirmed to her. “You’re gonna have to change the password as soon as you log in but there will be a wizard to help you through that. And you’ll have access to all the files that your security clearance allows you to, but Coulson has allowed you access to someone of the higher-level files about Hydra.” She trailed off, seeing Jemma’s face and her light relaxed complexion turned to one of puzzlement. “Are you okay?”

Jemma nodded, blinking a number of times and staring around the lab. “It’s just been… it’s been so long since I’ve been in the lab. A lab. Any lab. And just the last time…” she shook her head, trying to shake the memories that had suddenly overcame her from her mind. They wouldn’t be of benefit, not here, not now. “The memories aren’t pleasant.”

Daisy shrugged, not wanting to press the issue when it seemed that Jemma was uncomfortable. “Understandable. Just know we’re here for you if you want anything, if you need anything, okay?”

Jemma nodded, smiling again and trying to hide her fears and the horrors of her past. She looked between the two of them, Fitz standing back from the two women. “ Thank you. For everything.” And she hurried across the lab, to where her desk was. There was a pad of paper on it, along with a pack of pens and pencils and some other stationary such as a ruler, a rubber and a sharpener. She couldn’t help but feel extremely grateful at what she had been given despite only being here for a number of hours now. They seemed as though they were really trying to help her fit in, make her feel at home. A feeling she hadn’t experienced since the night her father had died. A feeling she hadn’t thought about for years now, a feeling she never thought she would experience again.

She shook her head, trying to rid her mind of that thought. It wouldn’t be useful or of benefit, not now anyway. So she logged instead, and set up the compute to the way that she liked it, and then began coding, spending hours working away at the program that would help her to find Eliza.

It wasn’t until Fitz and Daisy came and joined her that she realised just how long had passed. “We’re going to get dinner, then call it a day. You’re welcome to join,” he offered, looking at her, a smile graced his face.

She looked up from what she was doing at them, and then back at her screen. She had almost finished what she was doing but she was hungry now. She hadn’t eaten properly in weeks and at this point she really needed food. She couldn’t risk collapsing, not again. But she needed to get this coding finished. She needed to get this done to find Eliza.

It was a long low whistle from Daisy that knocked her out her thought and back to reality. “That’s impressive,” she commended, nodding to Jemma’s screen. “Didn’t know you could code.”

“I had classes,” Jemma replied. It wasn’t a lie, she _had_ had classes but years ago now, when she was twelve. The knowledge had just stuck with her. And she had done her own research as the topic had been extremely interesting to her.

Daisy nodded. But she never got to speak as a lab tech came pottering over to her, looking extremely nervous. “Miss… Agent… Doctor Simmons… Coulson wants you in his office after dinner. About your bloodwork and the fact…” He stopped, seeing the dread on her face. He had gone too far, and everyone in the room knew it.

“Jemma?” Fitz asked, his voice breaking the deafening silence in the room. “Are you okay? What’s wrong?”

She shrugged, not knowing what was happening. She felt panic rising in her, consuming her, constricting her chest. It fired around her blood, chilling her veins. Something that she had tried so hard to keep hidden from S.H.I.E.L.D. for as long as possible had just come out.

“You’re Inhuman,” Daisy whispered, catching on before Fitz as to what the lab tech had said, He had disappeared at this point but not before muttering a hurried apology but it was too late. It was out in the open.

Slowly, she nodded, deciding that being honest was the best approach, that she wouldn’t be able to lie her way out of this so being truthful, and admitting that she was was the best course of action at this point. “I am. Ever since I was born… but I don’t have powers. Not really. Not at all. I was changed... My DNA, its Inhuman… mum was still pregnant with me when I changed. Dad thinks, he always thought that maybe it gave me my eidetic memory. It’s weird.” A pause as she composed herself. “I remember everything, images, faces so clearly and even more so if they’re attached to strong emotions like love and grief.”

Daisy bopped her head in approval. “Nice.” Then she paused as if thinking about it. “That would make training with May so much easier. I would never forget a lesson.” She gave a short laugh.

Jemma shook her head, dipping it so that she didn’t have to face the two of them, so they didn’t have to see the tears that had begun to make tracks down her face, clinging to her lashes. “It’s not... It’s not nice.” She closed her eyes, bracing herself. “Knowing the last words that your mum said to you when you were six months old before she walked out on you, never to come home. Waking up each morning and remembering the crushing pain of being told that your father has been killed, has been _murdered_ and the pain and emptiness that comes after it… I hate it.” She hissed the last three words out between gritted teeth and the two others stepped back, Daisy realising that she had inadvertently said the wrong thing.

Another shake of Jemma’s head, her hair falling in curtains around her face. “I just…” she tried, words failing her. her voice was cracking and all she knew was that she had had to get out of there, sooner rather than later. So she pushed herself away from the desk and stood up from her chair, hurrying out of the lab before anything else could happen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes........ I did make Jemma Inhuman, again. Will I ever stop? Maybe one day I will. Maybe but unlike some of my other fics, she doesn't really have powers in this one. Thanks for your support again, I hope enjoyed this chapter!


	8. Never Knew I Could Be Speechless

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the support you have shown me so far, I'm so glad that you guys are enjoying this! This chapter title comes from Burn It Down by Daughter

Daisy and Fitz just stood there as if in shock as they watched Jemma first push herself away from her desk and then flee the lab, barely concealing sobs as she did so. “Should we go after her?” Daisy asked once she had found her voice, her eyes still focused on the spot where Jemma no longer was.

Fitz wanted to say yes, yes they should go after her. Find her and comfort her, tell her that they were sorry, they didn’t mean to upset her. That they never knew about her past, not really. Coulson hadn’t told them that much during the briefing. That they could start over if she was wanted to, that they wanted to be friends with her, that they would help her with her search for Eliza but he never. He never said a single word of that out loud. Because he couldn’t. Not really. So instead he settled one something else, different words, a different idea that he knew wasn’t as good as his original but was somehow the better option, the safer option. “We should let her go.”

Daisy managed to pull her gaze from the empty spot to him, frowning at him in confusion as though she were trying to work something out. “We should?”

Fitz nodded, a sigh escaping him as he did so. Without really thinking about it, he reached up with one hand and rubbed anxiously at the back of his neck. “Think about it Daisy. We all but kidnapped her and brought her here, one of the most important people in her life has been taken by Hydra. Her whole world has changed, something that she’s still adjusting to it. She didn’t even know we were still a thing. Remember what it was like when we found you?”

Daisy didn’t have an answer for this, she just remained silent and Fitz knew what she was thinking about. About how they had found her only a number of years ago, a recently transformed Inhuman with the ability to create seismic waves. “Yeah,” Daisy replied, a hint of laughter in her voice. “I’d somehow managed to destroy half the block before you and Bobbi found me.”

Fitz nodded, thinking back to that time. “You nearly to knock me out the window as well if I recall.”

“Hey!” Daisy exclaimed, faking annoyance but unable to keep the light-hearted humour out of her voice. “I had just gotten my powers, I couldn’t control them!”

Fitz shook his head, a light laughter leaving him now.

Daisy smiled at him, looping her arm in his. “And that’s why we’re thankful for Elena. Now c’mon, I want dinner. Hunter’s making his infamous mushroom soup tonight. And you know that I hate missing it.”

Fitz obliged, the two of them walking arm in arm to the kitchen, arriving just in time to find Hunter finishing making his soup. “Smells amazing,” Daisy told him as they entered the kitchen, pulling herself free from Fitz and making her way to one of the cupboards and pulling out a handful of bowls. She set them on the counter for him.

“Thanks. Is Simmons coming?” he asked as he began ladling the mixture into them.

Daisy and Fitz looked at each other, a silent conversation flitting between the two of them. Hunter didn’t seem to pick up on what was not being spoken and just frowned until eventually Daisy shook her head and spoke. “No. Not tonight. She needed some alone time.”

Hunter gave a lazy shrug of one shoulder as if to say that it was no big deal and finished serving. “She’s missing out. She does know she can hang with us, doesn’t she?”

“I think so,” Daisy replied reaching for her own bowl and spoon. “She just seems, I don’t know…” Daisy trailed of as she couldn’t find the words to say. She shook her head. “Maybe she just needs sometime alone, sometime to adjust.”

Hunter nodded, agreeing with her and soon the two of them broke into a more light-hearted conversation about the games competition that they had planned for that night. Fitz, meanwhile, hung back as this all transpired around him, thinking about Jemma, wondering if she were okay.

***

As soon as she fled the lab, Jemma just knew that she had to keep walking. Keep walking and find somewhere secluded that she could hide. Somewhere she could hide and let out the emotions that she was failing to keep in, the emotions that were threatening to overwhelm her. The tears were already making tracks down her cheeks, salty as they touched her lips, and her breathing was heavy, catching in her throat.

She had messed up in the lab. She had messed up horrifically in the lab. She hadn’t meant for them to find out her secret, just who she was like that. She had wanted to do it on her own terms, not some lab tech accidentally revealing it (not that she was angry at them, mistakes happen and in the end, he hadn’t known what Jemma had wanted). But now everyone knew just knew just who Jemma was, just _what_ she was. And she had messed everything up, not getting the joke that Daisy was talking about, crying in front of them and just seeming rude. And then she had ran out.

She had messed it all up.

She should have known that it would be hard here, that everything would be so much different from what she was normally used to. This wasn’t the outside world, the world where she and so many others were being hunted simply because of who they were. This was S.H.I.E.L.D., an organisation that she, along with so many others, had believed to be long dead, and they had offered to help her, _her_ of all people. They had given her the resources that she needed, and they were trying to be nice to her, opening up the offer of getting dinner with them to her, and here she was, running away in tears.

They would hate her for this.

Eventually, she found a bathroom in some darkened corner and pushing open the door, she made her way inside it, locking the door behind her and pulling on the light cord before collapsing to the ground, her body shaking with sobs.

In the end, Jemma didn’t know how long she remained there, her back against the door and the light above her buzzing and flickering. She just knew that she stayed there until the sobs eased and there were no more tears left to cry.

Slowly, she stood up and made her way over to the sink, turning on the cold tap, the water blasting and she washed her face, hoping to mask any evidence that she had spent time crying and once she felt like she had done a good job, she reached for a towel and looked at herself in the mirror, droplets running down her face and clinging to her hairline. Shaking her head, she wiped her face dry and told herself that it was going to be okay, that it was all going to be okay.

***

She had tried to find them once she had left the bathroom but they weren’t in the kitchen, not anymore. It was empty. She was about to leave the room and try the lounge when her stomach rumbled and she knew, she just knew that she had to eat. She had gone so long without food now, a proper meal that she was at risk of collapsing again and after the day that she had, she didn’t want that to happen again. So she started to rummage in the cupboards, looking for something that she could eat, even if it was something small.

Eventually, she found something. Well _somethings_. There were multiple boxes of granola bars in the cupboard and Jemma had no idea if they belonged to anyone in particular or if they were kept there simply because they were good for snacking on. After a moment’s pause, she grabbed one of the boxes and lifted two out before sliding the box back into the cupboard and hating that she couldn’t leave a note to the owner, apologising for potentially stealing their food. She just hoped that they would understand.

With her dinner now in hand, she left the kitchen, wondering where everyone she knew could be. A number of agents kept walking up and down the corridor, but no one paid her the slightest bit of attention. It was as though she were invisible, not that she cared. She preferred being invisible, blending in with the shadows that she knew so well at this point. Sometimes she even believed that she knew the world of darkness better than the one of the light.

But that didn’t matter. Not now. She had to find Daisy and Fitz, to apologise. To say that she was sorry for her behaviour earlier. When they had invited her to dinner and told her they were going to call it a day…

Call it a day. Maybe they had gone to the lounge, to relax.

Taking a bite of one of her granola bars, she headed that way, and upon pushing the door open, she found that she was right. Daisy and Fitz were in there, Daisy playing on some games console with someone she didn’t yet know and Fitz was there too, sitting at a table, a bottle of beer beside him, along with Bobbi and two of the other agents, playing some card game and laughing.

It was in that moment Jemma realised just how uncomfortable she was, just how out of place she was. Everyone here seemed to know each other, seemed to be friends with each other, they acted like some big family and here she was, the outsider.

“Jemma,” came Fitz’s voice, the Scotsman having looked up and a smile crossed his face. “Are you okay?”

Everyone in the room seemed to have stopped what they were doing and were staring at her. She nodded, flashing a smile at him. “I am, thank you.”

There was a moment of silence where Fitz didn’t continue the conversation and it felt heavy. Eventually Jemma wasn’t able to take it anymore and Jemma spoke again. “I wanted to apologise for earlier.”

Daisy shook her head, her lips curving up into a smile. “You’ve nothing to apologise for.”

Jemma smiled, and gave a soft nod of her head to show that she understood and then the silence fell back over the room, no one really knowing what to do when there was a sudden _oomph_ from Fitz, barely audible that she had to question whether or not she was really hearing it and his smile grew even larger. “I was about to go into the kitchen, get some tea. Would you like to come?”

Jemma waited a moment before answering. There seemed to be something suspicious about his question, something out of the blue about it, but she pushed that thought to the back of her mind and nodded. “That would be amazing, thank you.”

He rose, and made his way over to her, and the out of the room, the two of them walking in a somewhat comfortable silence as the noise from the lounge drifted into the corridor behind them.

“I’m sorry,” Fitz told her, once they got into the kitchen, Fitz reaching for the kettle and filling it with water. “About your father, about everything.”

Jemma shook her head, reaching up and checking that her necklace was still there, the good luck charm that her father had given her before he had been murdered, seemingly in cold blood. “You didn’t know. None of you did.” But the words were distant, as she was so very far away, lost in her thoughts.

“Did he give you that?” Fitz asked, his voice just about piercing the fog that had settled in her mind. “The necklace?”

She looked down at it in her hand, the wood worn with age as she ran it between her finger and thumb over it. She nodded slowly. “It was passed down to him, it runs in our family. He gave it to me the night that he died. He always said it was a good luck charm and sometimes, sometimes I can’t help but _blame_ myself for his death.” She stopped, not able to speak anymore and squeezed her eyes shut, knowing that the tears were there once again and without really knowing what was happening, she felt Fitz’s arms around her, holding her close and murmuring reassurances. It took only moments for her to wrap her arms around him and bury her head in his shoulder.

Her sobs filled the room as the kettle screamed that the water had boiled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter up! I hope up enjoyed this one! Feel free to let me know what you think in the comments!


	9. Training

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys, I know its been a while since this was last updated but I had major writer's block for this chapter but here it is. Thanks so much for all your support on this! Hope you enjoy this one!

As the days passed, Jemma continued to look for Eliza, but her program had yet to come up with anything. No matches at all. It was still searching for the girl, still running facial recognition everyone who even slightly looked like her that passed any security camera she could access but she hadn’t been spotted yet, and with each passing day, her fear only increased. It was a deep uneasiness in her stomach, a twisting churning sensation that made her uncomfortable all the time, that made her want to throw up all the time.

Eliza, she was still so young, she didn’t deserve this. Didn’t deserve to see the pain and the hurt of the world. She deserved a normal childhood, she deserved to have fun, to be happy. Jemma herself hadn’t even gotten to experience that, having spent so long trying to find out who had killed her father, something she was still no closer to discovering. Eliza didn’t deserve to know what it was like to grow up in a warzone, to be hunted simply because she was different.

And when she wasn’t doing that, she was in meetings with Coulson, with May, with everyone else in S.H.I.E.L.D., passing on what she knew about Hydra. They seemed more than thankful about her intel, thankful that she knew what they were really like, thankfully they had her experiences and her knowledge. And though it took a number of days for her to open up, to start saying everything that she knew, Jemma was glad too. She had wanted to bring Hydra down for over eight years now, wanted to bring down the people who were hunting her, killing her kind simply because they had powers, simply because their DNA was different.

And one day, Hydra would be destroyed, they would be brought down and peace, and happiness would be restored to the world. People could be happy, people could live in harmony without worrying about being attacked on the streets.

It was all she wanted. And it would happen.

Jemma would make sure of that.

***

She leaned her head back against the wall, unscrewing the lid of her bottle and taking a drink of the ice-cold water inside it. Her hair was stuck to her forehead, slightly damp and her skin was beaded in sweat. Daisy had been helping to train her, teaching her ways to defend herself that would help should Jemma ever be sent into the field, should Jemma ever need to use them. The other woman seemed glad that she knew the basics, that she had had self-defence lessons. She had joked that it had made her job easier. But fighting with Daisy, training with her… it was much harder than Jemma had expected.

She was a good fighter, someone who was extremely skilled, and nearly every single time they sparred, Jemma ended up on the floor, landing with a heavy thud on the safety mats, an involuntary groan escaping her. And the handful of times Jemma did end up flooring the other woman, she could have sworn Daisy let her win. No matter how much she tried to deny it.

“I think that’s enough for today,” Daisy told her, collapsing onto the ground next to her and shooting her a smile. Jemma turned to look at her, watching as she opened her own bottle of water, drinking half of it and pouring the other half over herself. “We’ve been training for nearly an hour and a half. Think we deserve a rest.”

Jemma nodded in agreed, accepting the towel that Daisy passed her, wiping at her face. She knew that she would need to shower. That that would be the best thing to do. Shower and get some food, and then maybe do some work in the lab. Fitz had been asking her to look at the dendrotoxin, wanting to see if she could increase the concentration of it without causing the weapons to increase in size.

She had said yes, thinking it would be good to do something different, and she liked a challenge. And Fitz was nice, out of everyone who she was friendly with, he was the nicest. He was always there in the lab, working with her whenever she needed it, but not annoying her and being in the way. He was nice, always up for a laugh, always making sure that no one upset her. He had been there for her that night she had broken down in the kitchen, holding her as she cried, reassuring her that her father’s death wasn’t her fault, hugging her and just comforting her until she felt better.

And she also found him handsome, despite how much she tried to ignore the feelings, the fluttering sensation in her stomach every time he smiled at her, the love she felt when she saw his eyes, a soft twinkling blue, she had developed a crush on him. But she hadn’t said anything. Because… because she couldn’t…

She just couldn’t.

Feeling her stomach twist violently, she stood up suddenly. She was panicking suddenly, and she had no idea why.

“Jemma?” Daisy asked, her voice full of worry. “Are you okay?”

Jemma paused for a moment before turning around, plastering a fake smile on her face. “Yes, I am. I was just going to get a shower before getting something to eat. What time do you need me here tomorrow?”

In response, Daisy just shook her head. “It doesn’t… it doesn’t matter. Have tomorrow off. My old S.O…. He used to make me train…” She gave a soft laugh, full of bitterness before continuing. “He used to make me train every day. It was hell.” She sighed, her eyes flashing with something that Jemma couldn’t quite read and instead of pressing the issue, she smiled a smile of thanks and hurried from the room.

***

He watched as she made her way through the lab, sliding on a coat and talking to Fitz. She seemed to be fitting in, making friends and helping. But he knew that she was still looking for the girl, and hat yet to be successful. And he knew that it was hurting her, causing her pain that she couldn’t find the girl, and as much as he tried, he had still been unable to help.

“Coulson.”

May’s voice caused him to spin, turning away from the footage in the lab. Her expression was unreadable, and he swallowed, knowing what she was going to say. “Have you told her yet?”

He paused a moment, and his gaze flickered between the woman standing in front of him and the open file on the table. A raised eyebrow from May before she spoke. “We have to be honest with her, Phil.”

“I know,” he tried, stepping around his desk.

“She trusts us. Or she’s getting there. And if she finds that you’ve been keeping this from her…”

“I know,” he tried again, but May’s face melted into one of steely sternness.

“Tell her,” she all but commanded, before leaving the room, and Coulson just standing there, lost in his thoughts about what to do.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry for that ending!


End file.
